The Hakka (客家 Kèjiā) people came to various areas of Southern China — the West of Fujian, parts of Guangdong and Hainan — as refugees from one of Northern China's wars some centuries back. Hakka means "guest people". The Hakka language (客家话; Kèjiāhuà) is related to Northern dialects rather than to any other Southern languages.

The Hakka have a history of seafaring and foreign trade, and quite a few overseas Chinese have Hakka ancestry. A number of influential Chinese have been Hakka, including Hong Xiuquan (who led the Tai Ping rebellion around 1860 and claimed to be Jesus' younger brother), Sun Yat Sen (Sun Zhong Shan in Mandarin who led the revolution of 1911) and the Soong family (Methodist missionary and Shanghai publishing magnate whose four children became very influential).